GREEN MP Caroline Lucas has congratulated the Liberal Democrats for winning a by-election in a seat held by the Conservatives for nearly two centuries.

The MP for Brighton Pavilion praised the winner of the by-election in North Shropshire Helen Morgan, saying she is looking forward to "working together at Westminster to hold this rotten government to account".

The Liberal Democrats overturned a Conservative majority in the constituency of over 22,000 votes to win the seat with a majority of almost 6,000 votes.

Ms Lucas said the result reflects the "depth of anger with a PM and government mired in sleaze and corruption".

She also echoed the words from Ms Morgan's victory speech where she claimed "the party is over" for the Conservatives.

The by-election was triggered by the resignation of Owen Paterson, with many Conservative MPs still angry at the government's botched attempt to get him off the hook after he broke the rules on paid lobbying by MPs.

Conservative Party chairman Oliver Dowden acknowledged voters had given the government a "kicking", but insisted the Prime Minister had the vision to get them through a difficult period.

While he acknowledged voters were angry with the government, he insisted Mr Johnson was still an "electoral asset" for the Conservatives.

Speaking to Sky News, he said: "Voters in North Shropshire were fed up and they gave us a kicking. I think they wanted to send us a message and I want to say as chairman of the Conservative Party we’ve heard that loud and clear."

However, veteran backbencher and MP for North Thanet warned the Prime Minister was living on borrowed time.

Speaking to the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, he said: "I think this has to be seen as a referendum on the Prime Minister's performance and I think that the Prime Minister is now in 'last orders' time.

"Two strikes already, one earlier this week in the vote in the Commons and now this. One more strike and he's out."

The result comes after the another Liberal Democrat victory earlier in the year in the Chesham and Amersham by-election, where they overturned another large Conservative majority.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey described the result as a "watershed moment" in British politics.

He said: "Liberal Democrats have proven the Conservatives can be beaten anywhere. And I think people are so fed up with Boris Johnson, so fed up with his incompetence and his behaviour, I think they’ll be really happy about that."

Labour were pushed down to third place with less than ten per cent of the vote, with the Greens narrowly losing their deposit with 4.6 per cent.

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